Baking powder is a raising agent that is commonly used in cake-making. It is made from an alkali…

orange candied peel, to decorate

For the chocolate ganache

200g plain chocolate, broken into pieces

225ml double cream

Method

Pierce the orange with a skewer (right through). Cook in boiling water for 30 minutes until soft. Whizz the whole orange in a food processor until smooth; let cool.

Preheat the oven to 180C/gas 4/fan 160C.Grease and line the base of a 23cm/9in round cake tin. Melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of simmering water or in the microwave for 2 minutes on High, stirring after 1 minute. Let cool.

In a large bowl, lightly beat the eggs, sugar and oil. Gradually beat in the puréed orange, discarding any pips, then stir in the cooled melted chocolate. Sift in the cocoa, flour and baking powder. Mix well and pour into the tin. Bake in the centre of the oven for 55 minutes, or until the cake springs back when lightly pressed in the middle. (Check after 45 minutes and cover with foil if it is browning too much.) Allow to cool for 10 minutes in the tin, then turn out on to a wire rack to cool completely.

Make the chocolate ganache: put the chocolate into a heatproof bowl. Bring the cream to the boil and pour over the chocolate. Leave for 2 minutes, then stir until smooth. Set aside until firm enough to spread over the cake – up to 1½ hours.

Transfer the cake to a serving plate. Using a palette knife, swirl the ganache over the top. Decorate with strips of candied orange peel.

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Comments, questions and tips

Comments (107)

nelster21st Nov, 2016

5

I bake this as the basis for cake pops, birthday cakes and it is a hit! Everyone comments on the moist, lovely orange and chocolate taste!It was well received as a cake donation to Macmillan coffee event locally and it was a success! Love the recipe!

This is a fantastic recipe!! Made the cake as cupcakes and baked it for about 20 minutes, can't remember exactly. It was really, really delicious. The orange flavour did come through even though I didn't use orange flavoured chocolate, just plain dark chocolate as the recipe recommends. It is a subtle flavour but really good, it's quite sophisticated and not too sweet. I didn't have any cream so just made a chocolate buttercream for the top and I thought it went together very well. Decorated with some chocolate shavings and candied peel. It was for a coffee morning and got loads of compliments, people really liked them. One of the best bakes I've ever made! Original and unique as well as scrummy :)

Made this for my mums birthday recently. I used terrys chocolate orange and double cream on top and lindt orange chocolate in the cake. Surprisingly moist, the orange really makes it. Received lots of compliments.

This cake is delicious! The texture and the lovely orange and chocolate smell are delightful. Definitely one of the very best chocolate cakes in my recipe collection, which is rather large. I've done it with tangerine as well and it turned out even more fragrant than the original.

We were really disappointed with this. It is far too rich and not that orangey. It was easy to make and worked well. But we really didn't enjoy eating it that much. It was best in small pieces with ice cream but my children actually refused to eat any after the first slice. I am freezing the rest to use with ice cream. Would not recommend.

We have just had our first slices of this amazing cake. Following the previous advice, I used orange-flavoured chocolate (Lindt Dark Chocolate with Orange and Almonds) both in the cake and for the ganache. There are no Seville oranges in the shops at the moment so I used a large ordinary orange and popped a teaspoon of orange essence into the cake mix. It was strange putting the orange (cut into quarters) into my food processor but the resulting puree looked great and there were no pips. The cake is dense, soft, amazingly chocolate-y and simply delicious. The nibs of almonds give a little extra texture to the icing. I found chocolate orange popping segments for decoration and sprinkled tiny edible silver stars over the cake. The effect was enchanting. I would make this again and again as it was so easy to do but tastes fabulous, so you get a LOT of compliments for little effort!!

This took a little longer to cook than the recipe stated, I needed an additional 10 minutes. Make sure its entirely cool before adding the frosting. Most people loved this, but a couple would have liked a little more orange in the flavour. I guess it depends on the orange that you use. Easy to follow and came out really well.

Made this for the first time last night and followed the recipe to the letter, except I used a standard orange and also less cream as others have suggested. I'm not sure if there's something wrong with my oven but it took more like 90 minutes on Gas Mark 4 in a 23cm springform tin before I could get the centre to spring back!

I didn't think reducing the cream was necessary as I used about 20ml less, but after 20 mins in the fridge, it was too hard to spread so had to warm it up. A tasty cake - not as sweet as I was expecting (my boyfriend and I noticed it had an almost slightly bitter taste) but not sure if that's anything to do with the type of orange. I'd make again but probably make some alterations (orange juice instead of the pureee maybe or no puree and chocolate orange for the icing).

I didn't have the recipe at the shops so I accidentally used 85% cocoa Lindt chocolate and it turned out great! I also forgot what type of orange we were supposed to have so I used a normal orange, it turned out fine though one of my problems was that one orange is not enough in a food processor for it to actually process so I ended up chopping it up with a knife instead. Otherwise, it was lovely. I made this with my family, for New Years Eve but we didn't make the ganache we left it plain and decorated it ourselves writing 2015 in the middle. I would definitely recommend this recipe!

Just made this cake and really impressed. Very subtle orange flavour. Originally nervous about the amount of oil and using the whole orange(used an ordinary orange) but stuck to the recipe and it worked a treat, was cooked a bit sooner than stated tho. The ganache went runny but just melted some more chocolate and added it, it soon set. Will definitely make again!

I've made this at leat a dozen times, always great cake and everyone who tries it loves it. My partner took some to work for her friends and now i'm getting orders for it. I always top the cake with mandarin segments, the fresh fruitiness combats the richness of the chocolate and cream.

Yummy yummy yummy! I always make a cake when we have friends or family over as I love to bake. I've made this cake twice now and it remains my partner's favourite out of all the cakes I've baked. It is sooo good! It is very rich, I wouldn't recommend this if you are looking for a light treat!

It does take quite a while to make and it is little fiddly but it is well worth the extra effort!

I first made this cake for a friends birthday and it was a big hit! Very rich though so you only need a small slice. I've made it a few times since and its easy to overcook which makes it a bit dry so watch it carefully! Also be careful to remove any large pips from the orange once blitzed. Delicious cake though!

Delicious and easy to make. Done it more than once and it's a staple to prepare for any occasion. Received many compliments too!! Used ganache on other cake toppings :-) definitely is a recipe to try!!

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